It is well known to prepare alcoholic drinks using an alcoholic beverage or liqueur and adding milk or cream to it. Typical such drinks are milk punch, an Alexander, Pink Squirrel, Golden Cadillac, Irish Alexander, Amareto Cream, and Grasshopper.
These drinks are usually prepared at home or at a bar for immediate consumption. Thorough mixing is accomplished by shaking the drink in a shaker, but if the drink is allowed to stand for a period of time, for instance one half hour, separation is likely to occur, developing separate fat and water phases, rendering the drink impalatable.
Cream or milk-based, alcohol-containing drinks are becoming more popular, cream or milk by many being considered a restorer of good health. It would be convenient for consumers of such drinks to be able to purchase them in a premixed, packaged, stable emulsion form. Because of the presence of the alcohol and a large amount of sugar, even refrigeration may not be necessary to prevent spoilage. The availability of premixed, purchasable cream-based drinks is particularly desirable where such drinks have to be made in relatively large quantities, for instance at parties. Also, many of such cream-based alcohol-containing drinks are somewhat complicated to make and require a fair amount of time, which the host may not have.
Some liquor stores offer bottled eggnog complete with liquor, the liquor preventing non-alcoholic ingredients in the eggnog from spoiling. The emulsion stability of eggnog emulsions is accomplished by the presence of the eggs, and is due in part to the high viscosity of the emulsions.
There are also on the market packaged, alcohol-containing drinks made using non-dairy creamers. Non-dairy creamers are engineered food products, a typical such creamer containing a vegetable fat, a sweetening agent such as corn syrup solids, a protein such as sodium casinate, an emulsifier such as a mono- diglyceride, and a gum stabilizer, all in predetermined proportions. All of the ingredients are relatively pure in composition and their properties are well known, alone and in the combination. It is thus possible to predict the proportions necessary and use of whatever additional ingredients are necessary to make an alcohol-containing such creamer shelf stable.
There is also on the market a product known as Bailey's Irish Cream, prepared from heavy cream, alcohol, sugar and coffee flavor. Aside from the above ingredients, the composition is secret and it is not known how shelf stability of the product is obtained.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,906 to Todd, Jr., describes the use of non-ionic emulsifiers such as polyoxyethylene ethers of mixed partial oleic esters of sorbitol anhydrides, including polysorbate 80 and the like, mixed with a flavoring ingredient and added to beer. However, the patent points out that such emulsifiers were found to be not stable in beer and soon produced a highly unpalatable flavor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,093,750 describes the use of polyglycerol esters in citrus flavored beverages, replacing brominated oils or gum acacia for emulsion stability, and also to provide a cloud to give the drinks a desirable appearance. There is no reference in this patent to the use of these agents in alcohol-containing beverages.